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Today, in an extremely serious newspaper Danas, an article about our organization was published. The text says that our monitoring showed that a regular visit to prisons in Serbia has an effect, because if we do not visit some prison for some time because of a lack of funds, cases of torture.Therefore, there is a need for constant monitoring in institutions for the execution of prison sanctions. We will monitor as long as possible.

In the text, we announced that we have launched a major campaign that the state will form an informal body of non-party figures that will monitor throughout the year and report to the Serbian government about the situation in Serbian prisons. We will carry out the action during 2019 together with other NGOs dealing with human rights and all those who want to participate in the action. Among other things, we also need important help.

A few years ago, as a legal representative of the Committee for Human Rights, Leskovac criticized the work of the member of the Town Council of Leskovac, Bozidar Vuckovic, and said that he, as a long-standing Socialist Party and the Hague Commissar of Slobodan Milosevic, is not a suitable person to receive a delegation of the more national city of Novi Pazar , I. During the year 2016, I was sued by B.Velickovic for “insulting the honor and reputation, but also the psychological pain that the alleged alleged had had.

In my response to the lawsuit, I called for the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from Article 46 which gives the right to freedom of thought and expression.

I also referred to Article 8 of the Law on Public Information, which gives all citizens the right to criticize the work of officials who are obliged to endure criticism and the policy they are pursuing, regardless of whether they feel a personally affected criticism related to him.

I also mentioned the decision of the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg no.27935, which states that the holders of political functions must have greater tolerance for criticism of their work.

Finally, I referred to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the UN General Assembly, which also gives the right to criticize the functionaries and that the critic who criticizes is not disturbed by it.

The Basic Court in Leskovac did not take any of the foregoing, but it decided that I was guilty and obliged me to pay around 1000 Euro of trial costs.

I sued the High Court in Leskovac and the court confirmed “my guilt” and I paid that sum. How I asked Bozidar Vuckovic about the sum I paid for in the complaint he submitted was more money. And yesterday I received the verdict of the High Court in Leskovac to pay another 1000 Euros, because some kind of reputation was cunning and he suffered a psychological pressure on the published announcement.

This is today’s Leskovac judiciary, and what kind of example it gives citizens who decide to criticize representatives of the government, when a representative of one of the oldest NGOs in Serbia (22 years of work) is drastically punished for thinking about some work, and the court does not apply the laws of their own state and even less international justice.

During 2013, I had criticized the work of the member of the city government in Leskovac. He sued me. Basic Court in Leskovac did not accept my reasons that I have the right to express criticism according to the Article 46 of the Constitution of Serbia, the Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of UN and according to the Convention on Human Rights, the Article 10.

I was declared guilty of the criminal offense of insult described in the Article 170, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Law. I had complained to the Higher Court, but the Court confirmed the sentence of the Basic Court. I paid attorney’s fees and court costs to the member of the city government in the amount of approximately 900e.

I filed a complaint to the Constitutional Court of Serbia and I am still anticipating a decision. In the meantime, the member of the city government has filed a claim for non-pecuniary damage based on the convicting verdict, in which he is asking me to pay 150.000 dinars for mental distress due to the violation of honor and reputation.

If the chapters 23 and 24 have been opened during the process of accession to the EU, that are referring to, inter alia, the right to freedom of opinion without consequences for the one who expresses his opinion, do these rights apply to Leskovac judiciary?

Unknown hackers, a few months ago, have completely destroyed the site of the Committee for Human Rights. Nothing could be saved, so we had to make a brand new site.
This is, of course, a process that is still going on and we are working on a development of a new site slowly but surely.
The Committee has the information on the one who destroyed and wiped off the site, but because of the lack of evidence we are not able to publish the name of the perpetrator.